Six years ago, I shared some of my experiences organizing Tifereth Israel’s Used Seforim Sale (http://jewishlink.news/finding-old-books-a-new-home/). Attempting to recreate that successful event six years later has led to many similar experiences, especially the gratitude expressed by donors that their old seforim will be able to find a new home. And, like last time, every penny raised goes directly to the shul. But not everything is exactly the same.
One thing I’ve noticed this time is that a much higher percentage of out-of-print books have been donated. I suspect this is the result of changes in the publishing industry, whereby fewer titles are being republished. It does present an interesting challenge, though, as it has caused the online prices of these now out-of-print titles to rise, creating a greater discrepancy between the market price of these titles and the below-market prices we are charging. Most seforim buyers aren’t going to pay a proportionally higher price, even if it’s the same percentage below-market price, but keeping our prices even further below market price creates an even greater incentive for resellers to purchase these out-of-print titles. And the only real complaints we received last time were that resellers were snatching up too many of the good deals.
As I explained several weeks ago, my attempt to avoid this revolved around publicizing a list of available titles ahead of time, allowing those interested to contact me about reserving (and paying for) specific titles ahead of time (picking them up at the sale). Although the titles I have been able to catalog are listed in files posted on TifPassaic.org/Seforim-Sale, donations of books and seforim have continued at a pace that makes it difficult to catalog even half of what’s been donated. I will continue to try to catalog what I can (so keep checking for new additions), but, at the very least, the lists can provide a sense of how below-market the prices will be.
One complaint I didn’t expect to hear came from one of the donors this year—that our prices last time were too low. When I asked him what he thought the goal of the sale was, he responded “to make money, of course!” When I explained to him that the goal was not to make money, but to get seforim that weren’t being used to a home where they would be—and lower prices meant more seforim would find a new home, even if the shul raised less money—a big smile crossed his face, and he expressed added appreciation for what the shul was doing.
Helping seforim find a new home isn’t limited to those that were donated either, as several families looking to downsize their library will be vendors at the event. Some professional and semi-professional used-seforim sellers will be there as well. Capitol Seforim, which has several locations in the New York/New Jersey area (including Passaic), will be bringing thousands of titles from their inventory. Aryeh Wiener, who offers a mix of popular/traditional seforim and academic Judaica in English and Hebrew, and Mark Staum, who sells many vintage and harder-to-find books “at great prices,” will both be at the event.
Judaica Antique sells rare antique books and manuscripts that are hundreds of years old, as well as original letters from gedolim and admorim. Besides being able to see some of these letters and manuscripts, anyone with antique seforim to sell can stop by their table to get a free estimate.
RIETS Press publishes the Torah of the Rebbeim and Roshei Yeshiva of RIETS, including the titles originally published by YU Press, and they will be offering 25% off their entire catalog (http://rietspress.org/collections/all) on purchases made at the sale.
R’ Yosef Kaplan is publishing the Chumash Shiurim of Rav Dovid Feinstein, zt”l (“מזמור לדוד”). He won’t be there personally the entire time (because he has seder at the Kollel he learns in), but the two volumes he has already published (Bereishis and Shemos) will be available, and if you buy both you’ll get 25% off your purchase. The opportunity to sponsor specific parshios in future volumes will also be available.
Some seforim have already found a new home, such as the Haggadahs made available before Pesach and a Maseches Shabbos bought for a member of the BMG Kollel because the seforim stores in Lakewood underestimated how many would be needed this z’man, causing a shortage of the preferred editions. And some seforim that were intended to be donated have remained in their current homes after I successfully explained why certain volumes should be kept rather than donated. There was even a set of seforim that, except for one volume, was in perfect condition, and after I repaired the binding on that volume and offered it back to the donor, stayed in the family.
Should I mention the sefer that had a crisp $10 bill in it, which I gave back to the donor? Or should I close by expressing my appreciation to the leadership of Tifereth Israel for hosting this event as a community service? It was Rabbi Cohen who asked me to do this again because congregants had approached him about seforim they were no longer using. He even donated some of his own cherished seforim because he realized he didn’t have time to learn them himself and wanted someone else to benefit from them!
Maybe I’ll just close by saying I look forward to seeing you there. If you love seforim, this event is for you!
Rabbi Dov Kramer ([email protected]) is a member of the Tif (TifPassaic.org/Seforim-Sale), located at 180 Passaic Avenue (corner of Boulevard) in Passaic. The used seforim sale will be in the Tif ballroom from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on May 25 and May 26.
